


Rubble Among Us

by The_lazy_eye



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Angst, Apocalypse, Ben POV, Canon Compliant, End of the World, What happened when before Five found his siblings, everyone dies, original timeline
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-07
Updated: 2019-03-07
Packaged: 2019-11-13 12:26:38
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 970
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18031715
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_lazy_eye/pseuds/The_lazy_eye
Summary: The fire is so bright, so big, that Ben thinks he can feel it. He hasn’t felt anything in years beside anger and sadness and frustration but there’s something warm tickling his ghastly skin. He reaches out into it, hands slipping through it. Numb nothingness. Bare disappointment.





	Rubble Among Us

It all happens so fucking fast. Ben hardly has time to process it, really. A loud bang, an explosion, the crumbling of his home. Well, it’s not his home. Despite the bedroom that hasn’t been touched for a decade and the broken statue in the backyard, this hasn’t been his home for a long, long time.

Still, though. It hurts. It hurts to watch it crumble to the ground until it’s nothing but fire and bricks and ash. A thousand memories used to be held in those walls and now they’re spilling out, free to roam in a world that has no place for them.

Ben watches. He sits and he watches and he screams, fucking screams at Klaus when the real shit show begins.

_Do something!_

_Help them!_

_Run, for the love of God, Klaus, run!_

It’s futile.

Luther goes down first. _Suits him right_ , Ben thinks to himself only slightly bitter. It still isn’t fair, it’s still awful, but a nagging part of his brain screams that it didn’t have to be like this. Ben watches, running into the fray, as Vanya shatters his brother, _their_ brother. Ben has never seen Luther go down so easily before. He has never watched him fall to his knees in submission, in defeat. In death. He idly wonders if he’ll appear again, right alongside Ben and Klaus, or if he’ll disappear into nothingness the way their father did.

The fire is so bright, so big, that Ben thinks he can feel it. He hasn’t felt anything in years beside anger and sadness and frustration but there’s something warm tickling his ghastly skin. He reaches out into it, hands slipping through it. Numb nothingness. Bare disappointment.

Klaus screams and the sound rips through Ben’s head, vibrates in his chest. Allison is useless without her powers and Vanya has never been stronger. She stands – no, _floats_ – there above everyone else and plays her siren song. Waves ripple out of her bow and buildings break down. Allison can’t speak, can’t spread rumors, can’t save herself when the bow comes crashing down on her. Ben sees it all. He sees the way she doesn’t fight, sees the way she surrenders willingly to her own fate.

Klaus screams again and Ben wonders if they’d stand a chance with Five here. Missing for longer than Ben’s been dead, could this have been stopped? Could this be reversed?

He prays that maybe Five will shoot out of some blue portal and take her down. Would he rather the death of one over the death of five?

_Oh, Vanya. Why?_

How could this have happened? They were so close, once upon a time. They were a family, training together and laughing together and crying together. He sees the six of them fighting, practicing. Six young bodies dealing out more death than grown men should see.

They’ve been training for this their entire lives but with one missing, one dead, and one turned against them how are they supposed to win? Seven now four and falling.

Vanya never trained with them. Vanya never laughed with them. Vanya never cried with them.

Something breaks within him and he screams out for her, screams for her to stop, screams for her to listen. _I love you,_ he says. _I miss you._

Knives fly past and through Ben and Klaus begs for help, for something, anything to help them. Something itches under his skin but it won’t come out. It can’t touch them. It can’t do what he needs it to do.

“I can’t,” he cries, invisible tears running down his face as another one bites the dust. “I can’t.”

They’re children, running through the hallways and grass and flowers. All seven of them, together as the world fades in and out. High pitched laughter echoes in and out of hearing range and he feels it bubble up in his chest. Dirty, wet laughter soiled by the tears he knows he’s crying. _It’s love,_ he thinks before it breaks. The memory falls to pieces and he’s surrounded by the dead and the dying.

_I’m useless_ , he hears in his head, multiple voices at the same time, and then it’s ending. Well, not ending for all, but ending for him.

His form flickers as he kneels by his brother and reaches for his hand. He lets himself hover over Klaus, pretends that he can touch him, pretends that he can help him.

“It’s okay, buddy. It’s all gonna be fine,” he whispers as the world crashes down around him. He’s not scared, he’s already dead. He’s got nothing to lose, nothing to fear.

“I’m dying,” floats back and he nods. Yes, Klaus. You are dying.

“It’s not so bad, I promise. I’ve been dead for years,” he reassures, hand still hovering over Klaus and he swears, _swears to God,_ he can touch him.

“I’m sorry,” Klaus whispers, blood bubbling out of the corner of his mouth, eyes a glossy gray.

“I forgive you,” Ben whispers back. He takes a deep breath and watches as his tears fall from his own chin. They run clean paths down Klaus’s dirty skin.

Behind them, bodies burn in the fire of the apocalypse. The harbinger of death smiles as the strings of her violin scream. It’s beautiful and he’s proud of her. Not for what she is now, but for everything she was before the end.

“I’m scared.”

“Don’t be, I’ve got you.”

“I’m dying.”

“Yes, you are.”

It’s almost over and Ben wonders if they’ll still be together in death. Will he see his brothers and sisters on the other side? Will he be able to touch them, hold them, speak to them once they’re all finally dead? Are they waiting for him now?

The world twitches once, twice, then cracks under the pressure of the damned.

**Author's Note:**

> This was entirely inspired about an ask I got that was talking about what Ben might have been thinking during the end of the world. Ben was totally there and he had to watch all of his siblings die before he faded from this world. 
> 
> This is entirely un Beta read so any mistakes are mine and mine alone!
> 
> Come talk to me @ reddie-for-anything.tumblr.com


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